A Brief History
On June 13, 1956, Real Madrid defeated Reims 4–3 in the final of the 1955–56 European Cup at Parc des Princes, Paris. After many years of planning, the European Cup took place for the first time at the beginning of the 1955 football season. It was inspired by the South American Championship of Champions, which had been a regular fixture since 1948 and the top teams from each European country were invited to participate. There were 16 participants in total with competitors including Hibernian, Servette, Anderlecht, Stade de Reims and Real Madrid – the latter two made it through to the first-ever European Cup final.
Digging Deeper
Source: Old Football Photos via Twitter
Staged at the Parc des Princes in Paris, the first European Cup final was a wonderful occasion and was considered a real step forward for the sport. The match didn’t take long to catch fire with Michel LeBlond giving the French side the lead after just six minutes before Jean Templin doubled their advantage just four minutes later. The iconic Alfredo di Stefano equalised on 14 minutes much to the delight of the travelling Spanish fans. He went on to score in five successive European Cup finals and was considered “a true titan” of the game.
Hector Rial netted twice, one either side of the break, to put his side back level before Marquitos’ 67th-minute strike gave Real Madrid a narrow advantage. Managed by Jose Villalonga Llorente, they managed to prevent their French opponents from finding a way back into the game to lift the first-ever European Cup in front of 38,000 spectators.
It was the start of Los Blancos’ dominance in this competition and they went on to chalk up five consecutive successes in the European Cup. In 2018, they continued to set records by clinching their 13th European Cup success whilst also becoming the first team to win three titles in a row since the change of format in 1993. They have been installed as 7/1 shots in William Hill’s Champions League odds for the 2018-19 season as they bid for an unprecedented fourth success in the competition.
Source: Real Madrid CF via Twitter
Journalist Antoine Blondin wrote about the final in French newspaper L’EQUIPE and penned a rather poetic review of the occasion. He said “it is always rather moving to witness the birth of a tradition” before going on to add “The other evening, there was something of a nativity at the Parc des Princes where, under a starry sky, football’s first European Cup was glimpsed by 40,000 wise men…”
The game was a suitable finale to a hugely successful first staging of the competition which yielded a total of 127 goals throughout the tournament. Crowds averaged around 28,000 and UEFA were understandably keen to continue with the same format the following year. The second edition of the European Cup included teams from England, Bulgaria, Turkey and Luxembourg.
Four years later, in Stuttgart, Real Madrid beat Stade de Reims for the second time in a European Cup Final but it was far simpler this time around. Alfredo di Stefano got on the scoresheet once again during a fairly straightforward 2-0 success.
Question for students (and subscribers): Why do you think soccer is so popular around the world? Why is it not as popular on the professional level as baseball, basketball, or American football in the United States of America? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
If you liked this article and would like to receive notification of new articles, please feel welcome to subscribe to History and Headlines by liking us on Facebook and becoming one of our patrons!
Your readership is much appreciated!
Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
MacWilliam, Rab. The European Cup: The Greatest Teams, 1956-2013. Clissold Books, 2014.
The featured image in this article, line-ups for the 1956 European Cup Final between Real Madrid and Stade de Reims at Parc des Princes, Paris, on June 13, 1956, was published by Zotteteen1, the copyright holder of this work, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
You are free:
- to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work
- to remix – to adapt the work
Under the following conditions:
- attribution – You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).
- share alike – If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one.
